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"Gareth Magennis" <sound.service@btconnect.com>: Sep 11 11:01AM +0100 Can't seem to Google this, but in the old days (in the UK) you could put a call meter in series on your landline, that I think measured some kind of "click" from the exchange that signified another unit of calltime charged. You could thus keep a tally on the calls made on that phone.   This was useful when I was in a shared house, where everyone wrote down the units they had used, and the phone bill was split accordingly.   I can't seem to find such a thing now. Is it possible to meter your used units now?           Cheers,     Gareth.

Baron <baron@linuxmaniac.net>: Sep 11 01:05PM +0100 Gareth Magennis prodded the keyboard with:   > used units now?   > Cheers,   > Gareth.   No its all gone with the advent of "inclusive call charging". I no longer get a phone bill as such. Sure I get an Email telling me what calls I've made but never how much they cost. Line rental gets taken yearly and broadband and calls inclusive monthly. That might as well be taken yearly as well since it never changes. However it does provide a mechanism for the ISP to charge me for internet usage.   -- Best Regards: Baron.

Ken Layton <KLayton888@aol.com>: Sep 10 12:06PM -0700 On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:48:41 AM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote: > 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com > Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com > Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558   The old Sams "Photo Fact" repair manuals were sure helpful to me back in the tube electronics days. They were always so detailed.   Some of the main problems with electronics today are:   1. The removal of lead from many components causes them to fail faster.   2. The switch to "lead-free" solder has caused more equipment failures due to tin whiskers.   3. Surface mount components prevent most average people from repairing their own equipment.   4. Manufacturers deliberately NOT issuing schematics or service/parts manuals.   I have helped many people in the video arcade game & pinball machine collecting hobby by writing several monitor repair guides (for CRT monitors) and I wrote most of the pinwiki section on repairing the home model pinball machines.   I also have answered questions on fixya.com

jurb6006@gmail.com: Sep 10 03:08PM -0700 Actually they're lucky I don't have alot of ambition. Also don't really have the connections either but the way I see it, to get the government(s) to force better quality electronics as well as support for repairs it would probably be best to take the environmental approach.   Unless it's Rand Paul, I think we can expect a democrat administration, or Sanders who is pretty close. Such an administration along with close enough to control of congress, could possibly foment some sort of legislation. I do believe California had some law to do with parts for electronic equipment. So many years if it cost over a hundred bucks or something like that. I am not going to ask what happened to that law, I already know, lobbyists took care of that law.   Really, the impact of this junk with no parts is not just hurting the repair industry, it is emptying our banks and filling our landfills. Hell, the repair industry is dead. The last TV repair I did was on my Mother's Toshibe 32" CRT. The tube is still strong so it is not going to be replaced unless it becomes unrepairable. Last one was Sony 36XBR400 that needed one of the MCZ driver ICs. Ran that until the tube died and actually traded off the chassis to where I used to work because the other guy FUBARed up the two sided board.   Personally, I do not feed the gadgetry industry because I simply don't need much. I got a cheap twenty buck phone, my laptop is getting really old, think I bought it in 2008. It runs fine. My "server" runs XP. Neither one of these are getting a software upgrade except maybe to Linux. And stereo equipment ? I am getting to the point with "older is better" that I might switch to tubes. not really though, I don't consider "tube sound" any better. the last tube amps I had seemed like they tried to sound solid state. They reproduced turntable rumble really nice... I never expected that.   Thing with the economy is that the money is going to the wrong people. The US does not produce anything mass market except wheat. Meantime we import a hell of alot of food. We mainly export wheat, try living on heat. Hell, we can't even get a decent deal on sugar because of the shit they pulled in South and Central America.   So since all this money is leaving the country, let's have it leave a little slower. If we cannot build it, actually, maybe we just do not need it. I know my vintage Pioneer wasn't built here, but that money is long gone. I will eventually put another battery in my 2.4 GHz phone. My pistol was made in 1911.   And cars ? I really do not drive much ad don't have a car. My eyesight is not good but if I got back into the thick I might consider a car. I just wouldn't drive alot, like at night, in the rain and like that. (it also hinders me at work) But if I hit the lottery whatever car I buy might well have ignition points. The problem is those types of cars are targets for theft, bigtime because they're all classics now. It certainly will NOT be running any version of Windows. I guess I would have to buy something new, an anti-theft system. And protecting those old cars is not trivial.   Bottom line, e really need to start fighting back. If the government won't help like they're supposed to, then we cripple the wallet. Everyone get the $20 phone and surf at home on an old ass PC. Drive the same car until it will not drive anymore and then buy used. Slow the economy and make it known WHY.   The problem with that plan is that in this country there is not solidarity. We will never be able to boycott anything and that means the landfills get bigger and the pile of money gets smaller. But fear not, eventually all the money will be gone and what needs to happen will need no planning, there simply won't be any money. Sure, what will be laughingly called the middle class will be about 10 % of the population.   That is not much of a market.

whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com>: Sep 10 10:04PM -0700 On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 8:48:41 AM UTC-7, Jeff Liebermann wrote: > "People can fight back against planned obsolescence by fixing the tech > we already own, but the consumer electronics industry isn't making it > easy."   The article doesn't mention all the common industry practices that impede repair possibilities.   When warranties are required by law or customer demand, small items can be discarded and replacements provided. It saves on shipping, I suppose, but it's VERY annoying to find a remote control with its lifetime battery cemented inside (and the manufacturer ceased operation sometime last decade). Or my Apple mouse that has a bad switch,but it's plastic-welded together. Repair is 'unnecessary - just replace'. Bah!   When warranties are served by swapping subassemblies, some really ODD decisions are made as to what options are available. I've seen a case where a socketed fuse could only be replaced by swapping the power supply. Other times, subassemblies left out cables or brackets or shields that couldn't be found as separate parts at all. Some tired engineer, finishing up the design, goofed the parts list. Or, failed to specify what the subassembly includes. It never gets corrected.   An 'extended standard warranty' of five years on cars, is a guarantee that only the dealerships will know the inner workings of that model, when it hits six years of age. This hurts independent repair operations.   Internal part numbers: a part my refrigerator needed, was easily available by its component-manufacturer part number, but permanently out-of-stock by the refrigerator-manufacturer part number. The parts shop has no way of supplying it except by refrigerator-manufacturer part number, because they're the AUTHORIZED distributor and can't trust a search on the internet... This is OK for independent repair operations, it just hurts the affiliates.   Fairy connectors: China passed laws when the number of incompatible cellphone charging adaptors got too outrageous. Connectors break a LOT. This mainly causes obsolescence because the manufacturers aren't good at supplying compatible chargers to their old gizmos. I see the price, and never want to buy that brand again...

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boomer#6877250@none.com: Sep 10 02:56PM -0500 I have a 1995 Chevy truck. The Delco (factory) radio works fine, but the tape player was dead when I bought the used truck. I would not use the tape player anyhow, so that did not matter.   The problem is that a former owner of this truck, must have attempted tp repair or remove a stuck, and used some tool, which mangled the tape player innards.   Because of this, everytime I turn on the radio, it would begin by grinding, clunking, and making all sorts of irritating sounds, BEFORE the radio would start. These sounds were the tape player's motor, relay, or whatever was attempting to play a tape, even without a tape on it.   Since I had to take the dashboard apart to do some repairs, I had easy access to the radio. I removed it, and intended to cut the wires to the motor and any relays. When I opened it, I found all the metal (where a tape would be inserted), all bent up and destroyed.   Rather than cut individual wires, I found the tape portion, including two circuit boards, all being fed by one large plug, which was plugged into the other half of the radio.   I just removed that plug completely, thinking that would make the entire radio unusable. But after reconnecting the power and speaker plugs, the radio works fine, and those annoying tape player sounds are gone.   I'm posting this to ask if there is any reason I could damage the radio by leaving those other boards unplugged? If not, I'm good to go, because I now have a working radio, and the useless tape player is completely disconnected.   Thanks

Jeroni Paul <JERONI.PAUL@terra.es>: Sep 10 10:27AM -0700 It could be a CGA to EGA adapter. The EGA standard used two TTL-like signals per color to send 4 levels of brightness from the PC videocard to the monitor.

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